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Survivors: Kathmandu's street children
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The plight of street children, like so many urban problems, is a relatively recent phenomenon in Kathmandu. Ground down by rural poverty, and abetted by new roads and bus services, growing numbers of children are running away to the capital in search of a better life. Some are lured there by men promising high-paying jobs in tourism. These promises often prove false.
The charity Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN) estimates that 5000 children - some as young as five, and invariably male - live or spend most of their time on Kathmandu's streets, with nearly 1000 more joining their ranks each year. They call themselves khate, a word that may be translated as "survivor". Most are lone runaways or orphans, though some live with their squatter families. The young beggars who roam Thamel and Durbar Marg, barefoot and clutching dirty cloths for warmth, are perhaps the more conspicuous face of homelessness. Living relatively well off tourist handouts, however, they spurn training programmes and education, and grow up illiterate, unskilled and unemployable - your alms will do more good if given to a charity working with beggars, rather than to the beggars themselves. The majority of street children scrounge a more anonymous and meagre existence as rubbish pickers, selling what salvageable materials they can find. Some get work as casual labourers or kanchha (errand boys), but in such a vulnerable position they run a high risk of exploitation. Some pick pockets, or drift into drugs or prostitution. About the best a khate can hope for is to find steady work as a labourer, bus conductor or perhaps a riksha wallah. In a country where 60 percent of the population is living below the poverty line, it's easy to overlook the plight of street kids. Yet the conditions Kathmandu's khate endure are far more debilitating than mere rural poverty. Homeless, they sleep in doorways, pati (open shelters) or unfinished buildings. Hungry, they often subsist on food thrown out by tourist restaurants, and many suffer from malnutrition. Weakened by toxic chemicals in the rubbish piles, pollution and contaminated water, few are without disease (CWIN reports that 20 percent have tuberculosis). They're regularly beaten by the police, who regard them as bad for tourism, and during visits by foreign delegations they may be thrown in prison or loaded into buses bound for India. And perhaps most damaging of all, they are deprived of the traditionally supportive environment of family and community, and instead must deal with daily rejection.
CWIN, one of several organizations working with Nepali street children, operates a "common room" near its office off Tripureswar Marg to provide food, education, health care and play for children. Volunteers and donations are needed. For more information, contact CWIN (tel 282255;
cwin@mos.com.np). Other useful information
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